Tuesday, March 29, 2011

OEL 6 + VirtualBox Guest Additions

I'm taking my first second spin at Oracle Enterprise Linux 6. The first time, I did not install a Desktop, so I was completely lost. I suppose I could do it now...but, I'm not going there just yet.

One of the very first things I do when creating a VM is install the Guest Additions. The main reason is screen size. Out-of-the-box, it's 800x600 or some such non-sense. I'm sure I could cope, if I had to, I'd rather not, it's just annoying. I guess a little perspective is in order:

That's against the backdrop of a 23" monitor. So yeah, annoying.

After having done this about 20 times, I know you need to install some extra packages. Usually the kernel* and make packages. I'll just skip straight to installing the Guest Additions though, let's see what happens.

Nothing to see here.

Well, Guest Additions includes the bi-directional clipboard support, and I'm not in the mood to type up the entire thing. Here's the specific error I received however (typed by hand, you are welcome):

Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modulesThe headers for the current running kernel were not found. If the followingmodule compilation fails then this could be the reason.The missing package can be probably [sic] installed withyum install kernel-devel-2.6.32-100.28.5.el6.x86_64

Run the command again and it tells me that "KERN_DIR does not point to a directory. Stop." No you stop. Whatever.

I then go into the "additional" packages provided by the OEL6 DVD. Funny, now that I look at the kernel* packages, I wonder if they are outdated? uname -r shows me 2.6.32-100.28.5.el6.x86_64 which I believe is correct, but the kernel* packages on the disk look to be in the 2.6.32-71 range. Weird, since I seem to have the latest...

Now, it's time for some public yum, Oracle's public yum server to be exact. Awesome, instructions on the front page on how to set it up, makes it somewhat foolproof for someone like me:

Download and copy the appropriate yum configuration file in place, by running the following commands as root:

Building the main Guest Additions module [ OK ]Building the shared folder support module [ OK ]Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions [ OK ]Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions [ OK ]Installing the Window System driversInstalling X.Org Server 1.7 modules [ OK ]Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions [ OK ]You may need to restart the hal service and the Window System (or just restartthe guest system) to enable the Guest Additions.

Maybe more concise, or maybe not the same issue. Might help someone else though :)

Doing the individual rpm installs looks like a pain, wouldn't yum install gcc have done the same and sorted all the dependencies out? Although I must admit I'm starting to skate on thin ice of understanding at this point, and the uek/oel thing is beyond me.

First, my sincere apologies for not being able to "communicate" for quite a long time. I am still getting used to the roller-coaster ride that my life has become. I hope Kate is doing well now.Now, this post brought back familiar memories of my unsuccessful struggle in Virtualisation territory and your immense and timely help to get me started with it. Can't thank you enough for it. Although, I am still struggling (trying to adjust to new job in new company, especially the whole new DBA experience that I am trying to digest), I should be able to "visit" your interesting blog-posts more often. Let's see when I get chance to wet my feet with new versions of VirtualBox, OEL etc.